Customer Reviews

That's Funky

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For a straight ahead jazz album (played by masters of the genre) this IS very funky. Before Bootsy was playing for James Brown and before Larry Graham was slappin and poppin; before there was fusion, these guys, or should I say LEGENDS were playing some funky [stuff]. Excellent blowing on some great standards. Ray Drummon, especially, is putting on a clinic on how to lay masterful grooves!

The CD title suggests some sort of jazz-funk fusion, but either someone misnamed the album or the band just plays it too straight. I was expecting something with the energy and punch a jazz/funk mix, but Benny Golson (an excellent instrumentalist) does not even begin to use the full arsenal of funk in these arrangements, Overall, it's boring, and that's not funky.

The opener, "Mack the Knife (funk version)" has barely a trace of funk and only Nat Adderley is well recorded. Track 2 could have used some funk bass but settles instead for safe ground; similarly, the famous "Sidewinder" cries out for organ instead of the mostly bland piano. At least Golson and Monty Alexander add some interest.

Mississippi Windows has some decent blues and an excellent arrangement-it's the best song here. I would have preferred an album of similar cuts, instead of the unfulfilled promise of funkified jazz. Golson and (especially) Nat Adderley are excellent on "Work Song;" Adderley mixes clear rapid notes with bluesy slurs. He consistently shines throughout the album and is well recorded.

We are informed that the last cut, "Moritat," is the "modern bebop version" of "Mack the Knife," but it is just as bereft of bop as Track 1 was of funk. This song is mostly a return to the bland, with just a hint of bop. Monty Alexander loosens up the last song, "Blues March," but it has little else going for it. Not recommended.